Sunday, August 1, 2010

A little bit ago, on ER's actualy birthday to be exact, I was part of Creativity Week at Seven Thirty Three: A Creative Blog. I shared this fun project and wanted to repost it here on my own blog too. Hope you are inspired to make one! As always, if you are, I'd love to see it.

Today I'm going to share with you, how I made this super cute, with bright summer colors and theme, accordion fold mini book! What makes this one extra special is that there are pockets that you can slip tags in and out of. The interactive aspect is really fun; I like the idea of tucking little extras and memorabilia throughout. The first thing you'll need to do is pick out five sheets of 12X12 sheets of paper. I used double sided scrapbook paper, it tends to be thicker. It also gives me more patterns choices to work with as I design the mini book. For this project I used papers from the Citronella collection by K&Company.

Cut 3 of the 5 papers in half, making 6 sheets of 6X12. Fold each of these in half, each half should be 6X6. That is also the dimensions of your finished project. Open folded sheets back up. You will use 5 of these folded papers to assemble the book, save the 6th for later.It is now time to design your project by laying out your papers, until you have a mix of patterns in an order you like. Above, are sheets 1 & 2.Sheets 1 & 2, with sheet 3 added.Sheets 1,2 & 3 with 4 added. All 5 sheets laid out. Once you have figured out how you want your book designed, remove sheets 2 and 4. These will become pocket pages and we need to cut notches in them, so the tags are more easily accessible. I fold the paper back in half and use a circle cutter to cut both half circles at one time. I have also used a large hole punch to do this. Once you have added your notches use strong adhesive, like double sided tape along the bottom, both sides, and creases of both papers. Keep the adhesive as close the edges of the paper as possible.

DO NOT put adhesive along the top side with the notches, or you won't have pockets. I have a picture showing where to add adhesive in my previous tutorial, but forgot to take one this time. Place you papers back in your arrangement, line up edges and press firmly into place. Your accordion fold pocket book has now been assembled!If you would like to add a ribbon closure, do so now. I like to use a Glue Dot to attach the ribbon to the front and back pieces of papers. Then to make sure it really won't go anywhere, I add a piece of scrapbook tape over the ribbon.Remember that 6th 6X12 sheet of paper I said to hold on to? Cut it in half, making 2 6X6 pieces. Cut each down to 5X5. Attach to the front and back sheets of paper, as shown above, to cover up the ribbon ends. Save your scraps, they might come in handy when embellishing your book later. We started with 5 12X12 sheets and used 3 of them to make the book. Get the remaining 2 to make your tags. They need to be smaller than 6X6 so they can slide in and out easily and not get stuck on the adhesive you used to make the pockets. Mine are approximately 4.75X5.25, with rounded edges. Before adding tabs for easy removal, test your tag size to make sure they slide in and out of pockets easily. Now it's my favorite time, time to embellish your project! I've used a variety of glittery, dimensional, and epoxy stickers from several different companies. There also some puffy stickers, do you remember those from growing up? Fun stuff!

Below are some detail pictures of the front side of the book. It's all ready for pictures to be added on top of the photo mats. The cardstock mats could also be used for journaling.Don't forget about the backside of the book! It needs some decoration too. See those yellow strips of paper with lemons? Those were saved from cutting the 6X6 sheets down to 5X5 for hiding the ribbon closure. I hope you liked my project and it inspires you to make on for yourself or as a special gift. I'd love to see it if you do! I can be reached by email at: katiesnestingspot(at)live(dot)com.

Here is one last tip, if making this for a gift, use dimensional adhesive like foam squares when adding overlapping elements. The recipient can add their pictures and not have to worry about trying to pry up edges of stickers.

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I love to do family friendly reviews and giveaways for products that make life better from the kitchen to the playroom and beyond. As a former teacher, I also enjoy reviewing learning materials. Click above or katiesnestingspot(at)live(dot)com

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